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Accept NASA's Invitation, Dip Your Name Into The Sun

Later this year, NASA will launch its first-ever spacecraft destined for the sun. The craft, the Parker Solar Probe, will be the first to enter the sun's atmosphere and come within about 4 million miles from the surface, "facing brutal heat and radiation conditions," according to NASA's website.

And you have the chance to be a small part of the mission. NASA has put an open call out to the public to submit their name. The names of people who submit, including actor William Shatner, will be downloaded to a memory card aboard the probe.

"This probe will journey to a region humanity has never explored before," Thomas Zurbuchen, the associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, said in a press release on the NASA website. "This mission will answer questions scientists have sought to uncover for more than six decades."

The mission's purpose is to learn more about how energy and heat move through the solar corona and explore what accelerates solar wind and solar energetic particles, according to NASA's website. Although the probe isn't reaching the sun's surface, the vessel will sustain temperatures of up to 1 million degrees in the corona. This will be the first close-up reading of a star and help scientists learn more about how the sun affects space and the planets.

To have your name included in the mission, all you have to do is submit your full name and email address. Patrick Hill, the deputy project manager for the mission, told CNN that NASA has already received more than 200,000 names in the first few days since the announcement.

The deadline for submissions is April 27, and the probe is scheduled to launch into space this summer.